Images from Balcones Heights police officer Julian Pesina's Facebook page are seen in screen captures taken May 5, 2014. Pesina was killed by two masked gunmen who waited for him to open his tattoo shop

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Images from Balcones Heights police officer Julian Pesina's...

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Photo: Photos Courtesy Of Facebook.com

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Images from Balcones Heights police officer Julian Pesina's Facebook page are seen in screen captures taken May 5, 2014. Pesina was killed by two masked gunmen who waited for him to open his tattoo shop

Photo: Facebook Screen Capture

Images from Balcones Heights police officer Julian Pesina's...

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Photo: PHOTOS VIA FACEBOOK

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Images from Balcones Heights police officer Julian Pesina's Facebook page are seen in screen captures taken May 5, 2014. Pesina was killed by two masked gunmen who waited for him to open his tattoo shop

Photo: Courtesy Facebook.com

Images from Balcones Heights police officer Julian Pesina's...

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Photo: PHOTOS VIA FACEBOOK

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Julian Pesina, a Balcones Heights police officer, was shot and killed late Sunday, May 4, 2014, while off duty in Northwest San Antonio.

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Julian Pesina, a Balcones Heights police officer, was shot and...

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This is an image of Balcones Heights police officer Julian Pesina's taken from his Facebook page.

Photo: Screen Capture

This is an image of Balcones Heights police officer Julian Pesina's...

SAN ANTONIO — The stunning killing last week of a Balcones Heights police officer by masked men has the hallmarks of a gang hit, which is partly why investigators now are looking into whether he had any affiliations with the Texas Mexican Mafia, sources have told the San Antonio Express-News.

But investigators also are looking beyond the killing of officer Julian Pesina to see if the Mexican Mafia, one of the country's most notorious prison gangs, might have been enlisting others in law enforcement, the sources said.

The FBI acknowledged this week that it's assisting the San Antonio Police Department in investigating the death of Pesina, but the agency would not comment beyond that.

Sgt. Javier Salazar, an SAPD spokesman, would not discuss the details of the shooting or the possible motives.

The revelations come as speculation surrounds the death of Pesina, who co-owned a tattoo shop outside the Balcones Heights city limits.

Pesina's body was covered in tattoos, most of which the muscular 29-year-old appeared to have inked on his body after joining the Balcones Heights Police Department seven years ago.

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Members of the notorious prison gang are known to wear University of Michigan caps.

An “M-13” tattoo on Pesina's shoulder is specific to the gang, multiple experts confirmed.

Among them were some that are worn largely by the Texas Mexican Mafia to denote membership in the gang, gang experts say. Wearing them without being a made member could get a person killed by the gang, the experts also note.

Additionally, Pesina is seen on social media making hand gestures that experts say appear to be gang signs of the most important letter of the alphabet to the group: M.

He also wore some of the same clothing or accessories as the gang's members, experts who reviewed Pesina's online posts said.

In addition, they said, he appeared to have socialized with at least one person whose rap lyrics include some of the gang's lingo and whose raps boast of slinging the gang's trademark drug: heroin.

“He just had too many indicators as far as the gang world,” said Johnny Santana, a former criminal investigator for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice who has investigated the gang's activities inside and outside prison. “Officers who work (gangs), we recognize all of those things.

“Whether it was a gang hit, or if he was affiliated or representing, only the investigation will tell.”

The San Antonio-based Texas Mexican Mafia was formed in the 1980s and is an offshoot modeled after the older Mexican Mafia of California. The gangs are not officially linked but share similar beliefs and a paramilitary structure.

“As long as I've known them, they've never been secretive about who they are,” said Angel Vasquez, who spent 15 years in gang intelligence with the state's parole system and supervised countless members of the gang. “If you are going to associate with them in any way, you should know what you're getting into.”

Pesina, a 2002 graduate of Southside High School, worked as a jailer with Bexar County on a temporary contract before joining the Balcones Heights Police Department in November 2006, Texas Commission on Law Enforcement records show.

Attempts by the Express-News to reach his family and business partners at Notorious Ink have been unsuccessful.

On his job application from March 2006, Pesina, then 21, wrote that he'd never done drugs but once was cited for being a minor in possession at a nightclub and once was either detained or arrested for an unlawful carry offense, presumably of a weapon.

He acknowledged that he stole $20 from his uncle when he was 16 and stole $15 worth of trash bags from a former workplace.

Pesina also wrote on the application that he had three tattoos: a bulldog on his left arm, a cowboy on his right arm and a horse on his right shin.

Pesina's 178-page personnel file, released to the Express-News Tuesday, suggests Pesina had been a solid and respected cop in the 21-officer department. An evaluation from 2009 described him as “an integral part of the night-shift team” and an officer that others looked to “for advice and leadership.”

In that review, a supervisor said Pesina used “vulgar language” on duty and that he lost some motivation after shifts were extended.

But, “these issues are considered minute,” Sgt. Salvador Onofre wrote, adding that he often asked Pesina to lead the shift and was confident he would adhere to standards.

A review from 2011 ranked him as “above standard” or “standard” on 10 measures including quality of work, job knowledge and compliance with rules.

But, the review also indicated he needed improvement on some factors. In August 2012, Pesina reported his city-issued Glock 22 lost or stolen. He wrote in a report that he had it secured in his personal car when it disappeared as he went for a morning jog.

The only disciplinary memo in the file came from 2011, when Pesina apparently did not show up for a “field training class” that the city paid for.

None of Pesina's records indicate any gang involvement or affiliation. But in his social media posts, Pesina's heavily tattooed body — much of it with Aztec themes, snakes and an eagle — stands out to some investigators. His right shoulder, for instance, has “M-13” tattooed on it.

The number 13 denotes the 13th letter of the alphabet — M — and is used by the Texas and California factions of the Mexican Mafia, five separate investigators said. It is also used by the Sureños, a feeder street gang for the Mexican Mafia in California.

“That's very group specific,” Santana said of the M-13.

Above the M-13, also on Pesina's shoulder, is a tattoo of a two-headed serpent.

“That looks like Mafia to me,” said another gang expert, who asked not to be identified because of his investigative work around gang members.

Pesina also uploaded YouTube videos of a rapper who goes by the nickname “M-One.” The rapper is a close associate on Pesina's Facebook page.

One of the videos opens with the rapper saying, “Merecido for life, partner.” Another says he's from “San Anto's own Eme.” It also says,
“Soy Mafioso, que Dios me bendiga.” (I'm a Mafioso. God bless me.)

A “merecido” — deserved one — is what Texas Mexican Mafia members call themselves, as they subscribe to the philosophy of the gang's founder and president, Heriberto Huerta of San Antonio, Santana and Vasquez said.

Huerta, who is serving life sentences in a federal supermaximum security prison in Colorado, pushed a philosophy that TMM, also known as “Mexikanemi,” is a group of descendents of Aztec warriors.

“You could interpret that as just symbolic of Pesina's culture,” Santana said. “But merecido and M-13 have nothing to do with Mexican culture at all.”

Also, Pesina is seen on his Facebook page wearing a University of Michigan cap, with the letter M on the front. The cap also is seen in the M-One videos. Such a cap is one accessory Mexican Mafia members have been known to wear, the gang experts said.

In 2003, for instance, the FBI and Santana unearthed a Mexican Mafia member from a shallow grave in southern Bexar County. Found with his remains was the Michigan cap he used to wear, Santana recalled.

Prison gangs are notorious for having their own network of informants and have been able to infiltrate law enforcement, said Bob Morrill, who spent a lifetime investigating both the California and Texas factions of the Mexican Mafia.

“They have a very, very good intelligence network,” said Morrill, who was a consultant for the movies “American Me” and “Blood In, Blood Out.”
gcontreras@express-news.net